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Capello hones down Russia squad

Cape Town - Russia coach Fabio Capello has named his final 23-man squad for the World Cup in Brazil, with the Italian unsurprisingly dropping Denis Cheryshev and Pavel Mogilevets from his provisional list on Monday.

Real Madrid's Cheryshev has been on a season-long loan at Sevilla but missed the La Liga side's Europa League triumph against Benfica through injury to cap a miserable campaign in which the 23-year-old winger managed just 139 minutes of action.

Central midfielder Mogilevets's omission was also expected, with the 21-year-old only making his senior debut as a substitute in a friendly international against Slovakia last week.

However, Mogilevets, who has shown good form since joining Rubin Kazan on loan from Zenit St. Petersburg earlier this year, will still travel to Brazil with the squad as part of Russia's official delegation.

He will take part in training and be included on the list of players on standby, in case of any injuries.

Krasnodar midfielder and Russian captain Roman Shirokov was included in the final squad despite failing to feature in the warm-up matches against Slovakia and Norway as the 32-year-old recovers from an Achilles tendon injury.

Capello's side will play one final friendly against Morocco in Moscow on the June 6 before departing for Brazil, where they have been drawn in Group H alongside South Korea, Belgium and Algeria.

Their opening game of the tournament will be against the Koreans in Cuiaba on June 17, marking Russia's first appearance at a World Cup finals in 12 years.

Russia squad:

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Lodygin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Sergey Ryzhikov (Rubin Kazan)

Defenders: Vasili Berezutskiy (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Granat (Dynamo Moscow), Andrey Eshchenko (Anzhi Makhachkala), Sergey Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Alexey Kozlov (Dynamo Moscow), Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow), Andrey Semenov (Terek Grozny), Georgi Schennikov (CSKA Moscow)

Midfielders: Denis Glushakov (Spartak Moscow), Igor Denisov (Dynamo Moscow), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Zhirkov (Dynamo Moscow), Alexey Ionov (Dynamo Moscow), Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Victor Faizulin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Oleg Shatov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (Krasnodar)

Forwards: Maxim Kanunnikov (Amkar Perm), Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexander Kokorin (Dynamo Moscow)

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